The dumb thing is that it doesn't matter who pays the tariff, it still will get passed to the consumer. Consider a scenario where the government starts taxing Amazon $100 per order no matter what's in it. If you buy a $10 item on Amazon, how are they going to pay the $100 tax on that? Amazon will just add a $100 tax fee to your order because they can't keep running a business if that cost isn't baked into the final price. It doesn't matter who actually delivers money to the government, the tax gets paid by all parties involved.
FYI, sales tax is already done this way. Sales tax is collected from businesses, not customers, but customers still pay sales tax because that's just how economics works.
Right, you and I get that, my point is that the people who are confused why their tariff-impacted goods cost more don't get that. They think the other country pays it, full stop.
Even if thatâs true the price would still increase. The exporting country would just charge extra to make up the difference. Itâs not like they would just absorb the extra cost by pure goodwill for the oh so poor American people.